


The Prince and His Man(servant)

by ReeLeeV



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Flashbacks, Forbidden Love, Light Angst, M/M, Non-Idol AU, Royalty, Slow Burn, Tags May Change, i can feel it, prince!Hyungwon, servant!kihyun, this is gonna be a long one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 11:24:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16515494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReeLeeV/pseuds/ReeLeeV
Summary: Hyungwon, Crowned Prince of Silla, lives the day to day life typical of any soon-to-be reigning monarch. He attends council sessions to discuss the skirmishes on the boundaries of their lands to the north, he meets with the various citizens who come and wish for aid in their daily lives, he studies in the library different policies. And, by his side through all of this, is his personal manservant, Kihyun.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I'm comin back with a new fic~! This idea suddenly just came to me, and I have no idea where this is going yet (wooooooooooo) so we're all gonna enjoy this ride together, hehe ^^
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy it <3333

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyungwon's going through his day, and Kihyun's always there to pick him up... only showing how tired he is when he's alone.

Hyungwon watches on with only slight disinterest as the decrepit man across from him presses a crooked finger to the group of play pieces on the map before him.

“We’ve had another retaliation from our neighbors to the north, Your Highness,” he states, pushing some blue pieces towards the mass. “They suffered heavy injury. I say we should strike back while they’re still in retreat to keep them from attempting this again.” Hyungwon’s brows furrow, staring at how the pieces symbolizing the forces of his army are now over the line and in the other kingdom’s territory.

“No,” he replies simply, sweeping the pieces back into his land with an elegant swipe of his hand. “If we follow, we’d only be trespassing into their homes and making them even less tolerable of our close posting. Just recuperate our men where they are and reinforce the stability of the outpost.” The dignitary purses his thin lips together, clearly not liking the idea. Hyungwon glances at him, having to physically tilt his head downward to meet his gaze.

He sees it in the man’s eyes. The question of “Why should I listen to this kid just because he was born above me? Why should I throw away all these plans to a spoiled brat who won’t even hear me out? I spent the entire night and morning on this argument, and he’s not even going to hear me out???” There’s the typical wavering, the single, fleeting thought of rebelling against the crown and taking control so he can do whatever he wants.

But, then it’s gone, and the dignitary only steps away from the table with a respectful bow. Hyungwon gives him a gracious smile, pretending to not notice the same thing he sees at least fifty times a day, and raises his hand to the right for a drink. A glass appears in his hand, and he glances over for the most fleeting of moments to give his manservant a grateful smile, allowing the weariness to show in his big doe eyes.

Kihyun gives a slight bow in return, an encouraging smile on his features before he backs away from the fray.

Hyungwon returns his attention to the task at hand, pressing his thick lips to the rim and gulping down the water as regally as possible.

  
“Do you think I was right?” Hyungwon asks, tapping the end of his pen against the woodgrain table at which he’s sitting. Countless documents are laid out before him, things he has to sign off on and approve of before they can be put into effect. Kihyun’s currently putting away the stack of freshly-laundered shirts he’d brought up with the prince’s lunch, having to stretch up on his tiptoes to reach the top of the armoire.

Hyungwon watches, unblinking, and thinks it endearing. Though, he doesn’t say that, or even let the pleased smile stretch across his face at watching the brunet.

“Of course, My Lord,” Kihyun replies without hesitation. He settles back on the soles of his feet, closes the doors gently without making a sound, before turning to face the heir to the throne. “It would’ve been foolish to go after those men after we’d already defeated them. For all we knew, there could’ve been reinforcements waiting out in the woods. It could have all been a trap, and following them would have meant we fell for it. You did the right thing in keeping the men where they are.”

Hyungwon hums at this, nodding as he glances back down at the papers he’s currently pouring over. He reaches over the silver plate with his free hand, plucking a grape off the stem with his fingertips and tossing it between his teeth. He bursts through the skin with his canines, enjoying the cool juice that flows down his throat.

“I don’t know if the king would agree…”

“His Majesty would applaud your prudence, I have no doubt.” Kihyun says it proudly, his hands clasped tightly before him. “I’m sure when that council member writes to him to complain, he’ll write back saying just that.” Hyungwon snorts at this, dropping his pen to clap his palms together once in amusement. Leave it to Kihyun to call out a high-ranking court official like that, without hesitation.

That bluntness is just one of many things Hyungwon enjoys about having Kihyun around.

“Thank you, Kihyun,” Hyungwon says, picking his pen back up. “You can go now. I’ll ring if I need anything.” Kihyun gives a short nod, a steep bow, and turns on his heel to leave. Hyungwon’s eyes don’t leave him until after he disappears into the hall.

The prince sighs, slumping into his chair as his smile falls with the departure of the one person who he’ll always trust over all others.

  
Kihyun goes on to his chambers, nodding to fellow servants he passes in the halls and bowing to anyone else. Once he reaches his own little haven, the only place in the entire kingdom he can call his own, he allows his posture to fall, his smile to waver, and he slumps over to the cot with a bogged-down expression. The bags under his eyes feel twenty times heavier, and he shuts them against the glaring sunlight pouring over his face from the overhead window.

He figures he’s got about two hours to himself before Hyungwon will need something again, so he has enough time for a small nap. At least, he hopes. He turns on his side, the unyielding cot beneath him a welcome source of support. When he was a child and first came to the city, he’d thought the cot unbearable. Now, after sixteen years, it’s become his best friend.

Well, perhaps not his only best friend, but the only best friend he could say such sentiments aloud to.

His mind drifts back to the prince he’d left alone, the prince he’d come to serve only by accident. When he thinks of those days now, those days of innocence before he’d been pulled into this world as a lowly peasant boy just in from the farm… Well, they feel like a lifetime ago.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Kihyun naps, he dreams of that fateful day that had brought him to where he is today.

Kihyun’s dreams take him back to that fateful day when he’d come to this place. Plague had been sweeping through the countryside, taking with it livestock, crops, and people. No one knew where it came from or how to survive it other than to run.

When his mother caught it, Kihyun’s mother told him to do just that: Run.

“You run, and you don’t ever look back,” she had said, the boils on her face already swelling to overtake her once-beautiful visage. Of course, she’d always be beautiful in Kihyun’s eyes.

He did as he was told, packing up and leaving the village within the hour. His father and brothers had already been taken by the sickness, and he knew his mother would be following them by the end of the night. Her body would be burned like the rest of them, in an effort to protect those still healthy and alive.

He didn’t even get to kiss or hug her goodbye, she wouldn’t allow him to. Though he’d cried at the unfair goodbye, he now understands how much it must’ve pained her to send off her young son like that…

He’d run until he came here, to the capital. He’d lived on the streets for a few months, until that fateful day when the royal family was parading through town. Kihyun still remembers it so clearly, the way the cars glittered in all their shining, God-given glory. The king and queen had been perched atop the back of a convertible, their clothes freshly-pressed. Hyungwon, eight at the time, was sitting in the actual seat, his lips peeled back in the brightest smile Kihyun has yet to see on his beautiful face.

It had mirrored that of the queen’s, their expressions nearly identical as they waved at the commoners from their posh vehicles. Kihyun had felt a thick, dark, sticky ball of jealousy clog up his throat, his stomach constricting in hunger, and he was sure he’d hate these people forever.

That is, until the gunshot went off in the next moment, splattering the queen’s brains all over the king and the back of that sparkling car.

Everything ground to a halt, and the crowd dispersed like a cluster of roaches when the lights are flashed on. Screams filled his ears as he was pushed around. He had done his best to fight against the crowd, but he was too tiny and easily trampled over. A body collided into his, sending him flying to the ground. He caught himself with his hands, but grown-up feet squashed his fingers in a panic before he could pull it back up.

He looked up with a defiant glare as he stood up on legs shaking with hunger, a look that didn’t falter just because it was the pretty boy from the car staring back at him.

Hyungwon looked petrified, blood sprayed against his white blazer. Tears welled up at his eyes, and his entire body was shaking. Kihyun still can’t quite name the emotion that had filled him at seeing this boy, not prince, who’d just lost his mother. Sympathy, perhaps, understanding. Whatever it was, it had caused him to reach out, grab hold onto Hyungwon’s quaking fingers, and pull him out of the fray.

  
He’d hauled the younger boy almost to the opposite side of town before stopping, his body screaming at him to rest. He released his hold on the prince, slumping down to the rough cement ground. Hyungwon still stood, glancing around confusedly at his new surroundings. Trash littered every inch of the alleyway Kihyun had dragged him to, rotting food and discarded containers and broken glass making it near impossible to step anywhere without kicking something out of your way. Only a ragged, holey blanket protected one from the mess, the one Kihyun had sat on.

It was what he’d been using as a bed in those days.

“I… I shouldn’t be here,” Hyungwon had said, glancing back the way they had come. His big eyes shook in his sockets, trying to figure out just where ‘here’ was. “They’ll be looking for me.”

“I can take you back to the palace,” Kihyun told him with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Just gimme a sec.” His voice was rough, tense, as he was still trying to catch his breath. His stomach roiled in delayed protest at the earlier sprint, and he couldn’t help but hug himself around the middle in pain. Sometimes he wished his body would just start eating itself… at least then he wouldn’t be hungry anymore. He could see Hyungwon shifting uncertainly beside him, but he doesn’t comment on it.

The prince began wringing his hands together, pacing in that cramped alley. His breaths became shorter and shorter, and Kihyun glances up to see the most panicked light entering the boy’s eyes he’d ever seen, rivaling that of the poorest in his village who always struggled to pay the taxes on their land. Hyungwon had muttered to himself, attempting to rationalize what he’d just witnessed. Perhaps it had been a publicity stunt. Perhaps there wasn’t as much blood as he thought there was. After all, it was his mom. She could take on anything, anyone, and come out the winner.

He didn’t understand what had happened, but he knew his mother hadn’t just died.

Kihyun had watched, chewing on the inside of his cheek. He’d gone through the same denial himself for the first two months he’d been here, and for all the time he’d spent journeying here. He’d thought that there was no way the sickness could take his mother, that as soon as he made it to the capital he’d receive word to return home. Or, better yet, that his mother would already be here with a new home already made for them.

Of course, that’d been childish hope, at best. His mother was long gone, likely had died as soon as he’d stepped foot on his path to this place.

He couldn’t help but reach out, grabbing Hyungwon’s incredibly soft hands with one of his rough, grimy own.

“The sooner you accept it,” he’d said, the most bravado a nine-year-old could possibly muster shining in his eyes, “the sooner you can move on. What happened sucks, but you can’t change it. I’m sorry.”

Hyungwon was frozen where he stood, fat tears rolling down his round cheeks. He seemed to be teetering on continuing to deny and throwing off Kihyun’s grip to accepting it with all the dignity an eight-year-old prince could have.

But, then, he just collapsed to his knees, pressing his forehead against Kihyun’s chest as the gut-wrenching sob of an orphan fell from his lips. Kihyun’s heart shattered at this, knowing exactly what Hyungwon must have been feeling… After all, he still hadn’t moved fully passed his own mother’s death.

Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, and he cast his gaze upwards, sending a silent prayer up to his mother as he wrapped his arms around the stranger he’d just dragged off from the singular most awful moment of his life, petting his soft hair and whispering that one day, it’d all be okay again.

  
Kihyun helped Hyungwon back to the palace once the prince had regained some composure, taking the back way in order to avoid any possible assassinators still on the streets. When they’d stepped into the throne room, the king had swept Hyungwon up into the tightest of embraces, turning to this dirty nine-year-old and saying that he could have anything his heart desired.

He’d thought then. He could be rich. He could ask for a place in court. Then he’d never want for food again. He could be one of those people in those fancy cars and help to rule this country… But, he didn’t want to rule the country. He just wanted a home, and a way to earn what he made.

“A job,” he’d said simply, not sugarcoating it. “I’d like a job here in the palace.”

The king had laughed as if that were the easiest wish to grant in all the world and had assigned Kihyun the role of Hyungwon’s personal manservant the next second.

Kihyun and Hyungwon had shared a look then, one of shock and confusion. The commoner had thought he’d be done with this kid after that one day… and then suddenly they’re bound together by service? It was hard to believe, near impossible.

  
Kihyun suddenly jolts awake, the insipid ringing of that silver bell on the wall near the door echoing clear in the small room. He sits up with a groan, rubbing at his eyes with the butt of his hand. Dreams of the past still swim in the front of his mind as he gets up, yawning widely as he runs his fingers through his hair. He pushes them away, focusing on the present once more.

He just hopes his mother is proud of him, where he’s come to be. He just wants her smiling as she looks down at him from among the other angels.

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback is always greatly appreciated <3 I'll see y'all in the next update ^^


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